Page 752 - Wordsmith A Guide to College Writing

Intensive and Reflexive

Pronouns

3 Use intensive and reflexive pronouns

correctly.

Personal pronouns also take on forms known as intensive and

reflexive forms. These pronouns are the -self pronouns: myself,

ourselves, yourself, himself, herself, itself, and themselves.

Intensive Pronouns

Intensive pronouns are used for emphasis. They let a reader know
that an action was performed by or directed toward only the person or

thing that the pronoun refers to. It is easy to identify intensive

pronouns. Because they are used strictly for emphasis, a sentence

would make perfect sense and have the same meaning if the intensive

pronoun were left out.